Well after quite a busy weekend, I have decided to try “dressing to be motivational” – as though I am going to work for several reasons :-
- due to the amount of work I am needing to get through these days.
- if I dress like someone who works in an office might make me more professional – sat at my desk for 45 minutes then a 10 minute break to do some sit ups and stretches before sitting down again.
- the way I worked last week which was slouched on the sofa with the laptop balanced on my lap. Not very professional at all and I found I was often drifting off to do other things.
This is the hardest part of working from home (and it is lonely) 🙁 No-one to talk to but isn’t that how it is for lots of people. I find myself talking to myself and looking forward to my husband coming home for his lunch just so I have someone to talk to. Also, it is quite easy to do jobs that need doing in the house rather than what I am supposed to be working on. I must try and work on my blogging during the school hours as when the children come home from school they are my priority.
Well today is the start of a different me – I am hoping the some of the mothers on the school run notice a difference in how I dress and maybe one or two will mention it. Hahaha!! I am sure the jeans will be back on by the end of the week 🙂 I am going to make the most of my time alone and crack on with my actual work and not the housework etc. A smiley faced Mam for school pickup will keep the children happy 🙂
Let’s go back to weekend, as I had an order to bake on Sunday for a regular customer. After finishing my jobs for the school stuff on Monday, I hid in the kitchen and mixed a vanilla sponge batter – enough for 12 fairy cakes/cupcakes. The order was for 6 Cookie Monster Cupcakes for a little boy so after they were baked and cooled I made the buttercream which needed to be coloured. This is only the second time I have made these style of cupcakes and after the first time my husband and children told me I had the colour all wrong so this time I used only the blue food gel rather than the blue and green food gel like last time. The only thing I was missing was the choc chip cookies for the mouths of the monster. I sent my husband to nip to the shop for some of these 🙂
As there were spare cakes and buttercream my son, daughter and husband all decided to join in to decorate some more for themselves to eat. However, I did manage to hide a few as I wanted to try out a Halloween idea which I had been thinking about.
After the children had finished I told my husband what I was going to do as he loves trying to decorate things. Over the years he has helped me with many design projects, construction of some cakes and he is quite a dab hand at it all now.
The leftover cakes were going to be Halloween Pumpkins Cakes so I set about mixing the glace icing which I made orange. Once this was set, the fun part could begin. Whilst, I made the sugarpaste leaves for the top of the pumpkin to resemble hair my husband made the sugarpaste faces. He went a bit wild but they didn’t look to bad in the end. The tester one was the funniest as he added bat wings and white teeth due to the fact he had spilt red food colouring all over it. It looked quite messy but he insisted he had made it for my eldest daughter in mind – who is turning a bit “Gothic” 🙂 She loved it by the way!!
Last week, my treat box sales went quite well and then the spares were sold in boxes of all the same bakes rather than mixed boxes like I usually do. However, I did manage to sell the majority of the spares (think there were two of each left for my troops to enjoy) – Jammy Dodger Blondies, Terry’s Chocolate Orange Brownies and Corned Beef Slice. I hope my customers enjoyed them all.
My Friday Treat Box this week is based on the Foodie Calendar so I will be baking Pecan Cookies to celebrate “National Pecan Cookie Day”, Icecream Sundae Cupcakes to celebrate “National Icecream Cone Day” and Sticky Toffee Puddings to celebrate “National Butterscotch Pudding Day” – so I could bake Butterscotch Pudding if you like?? I will add some images later. These are all sweet treats again sorry but I promise to have an all savoury box one week soon.